Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

 

With leftover rotisserie chicken from Monday, I made soup this evening. An internet search didn't really produce anything that caught my eye, so i winged (wung?) it. Here's what's in mine:

3/4cup wild rice

lots of water with some vegetable stock powder (this is what I use basically everytime a recipe calls for chicken stock by the way)

3 carrots, chopped

leftover cooked chicken, cut into small pieces

margerine

sliced mushrooms

half a yellow onion, chopped

salt & pepper

Put the stock, wild rice and salt and pepper into a large pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. While this is simmering, sautee your mushrooms and onions in about a tablespoon of butter until it starts to smell REALLY good as onions and mushrooms tend to. 

Once 40 minutes has passed, throw some chopped carrots into the pot, followed by the onion/mushroom mixture and the chopped up chicken. Let this heat for about 10 minutes (or until the sweaty guy in your basement stops riding his bike). 

MY REVIEW: Yum! I really should make soup more often. I love eating it for dinner almost as much as I love warming it up for lunch. It's such a good way to clean out your fridge and it fills the house with such a satisfying smell. We ate this soup with some olive/cheddar loaf from the Italian market and it made for a great meal.

JASON'S REVIEW: "Good soup sweetie"

Chicken in Red Wine Sauce with Nutty Mushroom Wild Rice

Again, this was yesterday but we'll pretend it was today because you probably don't want to hear about the perogies Jason made for dinner tonight. Don't get me wrong - they were delicious, but I can only write so much about boiling water!

So I found the recipe for rice in my "Company's Coming Tonight" cookbook:

Nutty Wild Rice

Ingredients
2 1/4cups prepared chicken broth
3/4cup wild rice
1tbsp butter or margerine (margerine)
2cups sliced fresh white mushrooms
1/3cup finely chopped onions
2tbsp pine nuts, toasted
2tbsp slivered almonds, toasted
pepper, to taste

Directions
Measure broth into medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add rice. Stir. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, covered for about 60 minutes, without stirring, until rice is tender. Drain any remaining liquid. Transfer to medium bowl. Cover to keep warm.

Melt butter in medium frying pan on medium. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until mushrooms are browned. Add to rice.

Add remaining 3 ingredients. Toss. Makes about 3 cups. Serves 4.

Chicken in Red Wine Sauce
I found the recipe for chicken on this random site. It was pretty damn simple.

Ingredients
1 yellow onion
About 3.5 pounds of chicken thighs, bone in or out (as much as you can fit in the pan)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Dried parsley flakes
Olive oil
Red wine
Chicken broth

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Coarsely chop an onion and place at bottom of 9X12 lightly greased baking pan.
Coat chicken in salt and pepper, a little garlic, and parsley. Put on top of onion and drizzle a little olive oil on top. Bake for 20 minutes.
Add ¼ cup red wine and ¼ cup chicken broth to bottom of pan and continue to bake for 40 more minutes.

MY REVIEW: I thought the chicken was too rich but I also added too much red wine. The onions look like worms and they were hard to eat. The rice was very good - lots of different textures and flavors. Pine nuts are expensive!

JASON'S REVIEW: The chicken and rice combo is very hearty and filled me right up. 10/10. 5 stars. 2 thumbs up.